Bob Costas will not be part of NBC’s coverage of Super Bowl 52, news that has surprised the sports media world because it’s a departure from plans Costas outlined about a year ago.

Last February, Costas said he expected this year’s Super Bowl to be his football broadcasting swan song after announcing he was stepping down as primetime host of NBC’s Olympic coverage. But on Tuesday he told SportsBusiness Daily in an email: “I have long had ambivalent feelings about football, so at this point, it’s better to leave the hosting to those who are more enthusiastic about it.”

During a roundtable discussion with several other national journalists in November at the University of Maryland, Costas painted a doom-and-gloom sort of picture for the sport in regards to head injuries.

“The reality is that this game destroys people’s brains,” Costas said during the discussion, per USA Today.

Costas, who has hosted six Super Bowls, doubled down on those remarks Tuesday.

“I have been making the same points for several years, often on NBC. In halftime commentaries, interviews with Roger Goodell and other prominent NFL figures, appearances on CNN and elsewhere, I have addressed the issue of football and its undeniable connection to brain trauma many times. Why? Because the evidence is overwhelming and the effects are often devastating," he wrote. "It’s the elephant in the stadium at every game whether others choose to acknowledge it or not. And it’s not going away. So the idea that I am only now finding my voice on this, or that NBC was taken aback by what I said at Maryland is just wrong. It’s all simple and straightforward.”